How Breytenbach Consulting cut its software bill and onboards clients in minutes

I'm Ivan Breytenbach. I'm the partner of taxation and advisory at Breytenbach Consulting. Um, and we use Fintura for pretty much everything in our practice.

Let's rewind before you used Fintura. How were you managing things within your practice?

I mean, we used quite a few pieces of software throughout the years. I mean I've been in practice for a while and I've seen just about everything from it's from Xero Practice Manager which is you know promised to be this amazing feature to quite a few things. So what it started out we we actually started the firm with Fintura because we used a different software at the previous company that I was at and um I contacted Bernice just after I started the firm and they said listen there's been a few upgrades do you want to try it? Um and it came a long way since the previous time that we were childhood. So I said listen let's give Fintura a go and it was miles ahead of it. So we've pretty much for all intents and purposes has been Fintura from the get-go.

Uh was there a specific moment where you like okay we need to have the right system in our practice.

Uh yes pretty much when the practice started. I've been in it for a while and there the one thing that every accounting firm has is we'll sort out the admin later. We'll sort out the admin later and then 400 clients later you don't know who's calling. You don't know what the numbers are. IDs aren't stored. It's a mess. I said listen I'm doing this right from the very get-go. I'm not having a freaking heart attack and systems.

So when you um chose to use Fintura, what did you want it to kind of solve for you?

So on a high level it's control. Um everyone spouts analytics so forth which is useful. I've never really believed in timesheets too much. I found them to be deceptive at best. Um but to me it was control. It was knowing that I capture a client in one system and it is fed through to Xero. It is fed through to my other systems and I'm not going to have to wage a war to get the APIs to work with each other. So, it was very much about control and just getting things in easily without a 15-step setup process. The client onboarding was a very big selling point for us because it's design your form, send it out, and you're sorted. It's got your brand colours, there's no graphic design needed. It's sorted and they get a leg. So, the simplicity and the control was the big exact for us.

Be honest. Were you sceptical before moving to Fintura?

I was a little bit primarily because we used Fintura in my previous firm uh that I worked for in a very very early phase and a lot of it was very manual that go to Eboard CS3s and so forth but when Bernice said listen it's let's have a large let me show you the new features um I was was very impressed um but no I I was a little sceptical but once I've started using it I was like the the big thing I like that it's simple I don't have to go and jerry-rig the thing and mess with the settings it's there it works your bearings sort it set So we we were quite sceptical but it worked at the end of it for us.

Okay. So you went to see the OG platform.

Uh but it was very white and it was very very minimalistic

when you started using a lot more. What was the first thing that you noticed within your practice?

The biggest thing was um I I made a LinkedIn post about it but it's so true. The the number of subscriptions I could cancel was quite significant because I had my Xero partnership which was fine. I could integrate that with my um Twiner app which was really streamlined because I didn't have to recapture everything. So I ended up cancelling a billing platform. I believe we used Zoho Billing. I ended up cancelling a CRM platform. Um Canva at one point even we got like a smaller version of it now. Um and then uh one of the like DocuSign sort of thing we signed contracts online. We cancelled like a range of subscriptions. I believe we ended up saving about like 2.5 to 4 grand a month. It's just in subscription costs. So that was a significant save though.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's very cool actually.

Yeah, that that was quite helpful.

So if you could put a figure on what you've noticed with using Fintura, can you say like how many hours you saving back, how much money you saving back? Obviously you mentioned how you you was one of the first things you noticed was saving so much money. Um, but is there something else outside of that where you can say like

it's hard to quantify the time obviously because a lot of it is unquantifiable because you're talking about a process that you never measured in the first place. But to actually answer the question, I'd say about 2 hours of onboarding per client would be my guess just because the engagement template is already set up. I remember how we used to do engagement templates in the past was you know a word template which is fine but it's a lot of typing. So if we take everything into account, I'd say about 2 hours on client onboarding, which we like to do quite fast, um just to get sort of weed out the clients that won't work and then get to the clients that will work. Um so that in terms of money, that's very hard to quantify, but then it could be quite a couple grand if you're talking about sales velocity. So

I mean hours on an engagement kit is it's it's significant. And when you're doing let's say that for 300 clients

and we charge quite high fees for our clients. You can imagine that I would want to know that this deal is not going through as soon as possible. I want the guy to say, "Listen, I'm done. I'm not doing it. Thank you. Goodbye." Um, and there's no another thing that I like is the auto reminders and things related to the client onboarding because I type in the guy's email. I type in his name. I say fill this in in 14 days if he hasn't done it. Cuts him off. Our liability is done.

So that works quite well for me because then the guy has to come back and say that's fine. Need to open the link for please. That's it.

Um, so that I really really like. Um and then obviously there's a lot of integrations and sort of features that you can tell someone that has worked in accounting practice which me has that you can see someone has done that before and wanted this today like the firm signatures. It's common in accounting practice that your accountant part and your tax department sign your insurance and they just say well look these are the users in firm so there's your signatures automat.

Is there something that you're now able to do within your practice that you weren't able to do um before Fintura or something that maybe makes it easier for you to do now?

I mean, it's a host of things. Um billing primarily because most accounting practices have the features isolated, but they don't necessarily talk to each other. If you have something like client onboarding is you know its own process that immediately speaks to engagement letter which immediately creates a quote once it's accepted which g immediately creates a deposit in was you're talking about an hour to hour process and a lot of checks that just ready for partner review as soon as it's ready.

So that has been something that's very very comfortable. So it's a lot of mental load off my shoulders because my if I need to know where engagement is, I just open this thing. Um there's there's a lot of things to talk about um compliance and so forth which has been very comfortable because it it takes a bit of the strain out of things. Um especially when you look at things like public officer appointments usually to have to explain to a clerk how the bloody system works. You just go and say there's your training manual, there's click on that button, it's filed and it's tracked immediately. uh which is very very comfortable because otherwise you have to come and try it out yourself.

Feel like engagement letters is your favourite feature?

Absolutely.

Have your clients noticed anything different since you've started using Fintura?

Um different is hard to say and obviously most of the clients uh are new clients that we've obtained but I would say that it has eased administration somewhat right because you can literally send someone onboarding link by WhatsApp and say there you go there's your thing. Um, and another good selling point is to say this is not some word document that I'm sending you. This is stored on a cloud. There's an IP address and an audit trail of your signature. So, you know that you're safe. You can take this document, copy paste it, then send it to a lawyer and have it reviewed. And the fact that it's a nice stream process is quite nice with it because they can literally just go on their phone, complete the onboarding literally 5 minutes. and and you guys have the SharePoint integration now which we have to play with a bit which is going to be very nice because we use the file request from there quite a bit.

If we had to take a feature off the platform which one would you fight us for?

If you had to take a feature away from the platform if you took away Engage and let us mitro of Jade offers with a sideboard and everything least that's dead wiki.

It's not cut a fly. Either that or Xero integration, one of the two.

Okay.

If someone came to you that was on the fence about moving to Fintura, what would you tell them?

I would tell them compare your current licensing cost to it because like if they're using actual software, you're talking some serious software, some of them high-end ones, you will likely come in lower depending on your number of users. And I would look at ease of setting up. A lot of times open accountant walking planners I don't want to move. It's a lot of work. CSV export exists in just about every competent like software. You import it back into Fintura and you've got the whole thing down to it. So I'd say simplicity that's what that's what runs an accounting firm you especially the older oaks they they don't want to go and mess with spreadsheets and things. They want to click one button and say there's my keys and I've built this oak and I build this oak and I'm that's what they want. So andur cers to that but it also caters to the the younger generation that says well look I know what an API key is. I know click it here or know how this and this works. I kind of just slack it all together and it does that as well. So it's it's a very nice middle ground. Fintura pretty much every other month you'll notice something else is different.

Can you describe Fintura in one sentence?

I would say it is um what accounting software should look like in the modern world that the rest of the world has yet to catch up on. Um and it is fun and interesting because it is still developed.